Silent Hill: Elegy for an Angel
by ChewieP
Summary: Aaron learns the truth behind the mysterious blackouts that have plagued him since he was a child. (Please R&R)
1. The Stuff of Nightmares

Chapter 1

The clock ticked away in the background, a bit of white noise for the uncomfortable silence. Aaron looked idly around the room, avoiding the eyes of his therapist.

"I haven't blacked out for almost a year now," Aaron said, smirking just the slightest bit.

"Well, that's good," the therapist said. She looked on expectantly, as the silence slowly filled every corner of the room. She sighed. "Aaron, I can't do anything for you unless you tell me…"

"I had the nightmare again." Aaron's eyes slowly drifted to the ground, and his smirk melted into a frown. The therapist shook her head.

"Aaron, we've been over this. We've thought of all the interpretations we could think of for that dream, and they haven't helped at all."

"I know. It's just that they're starting to feel more and more real…"

"I'm sorry, Aaron, I just don't think we're going to get anywhere by going down this path again."

"But…"

"Aaron, don't forget that were trying to solve your issues from the past, not idly dwell on them."

"I know." Aaron sighed, and dropped his eyes.

"Now, if that's all you came here for, I'm afraid you're going to have to leave. I have other patients waiting." Aaron looked darkly at his therapist, stood up, walked to the door, and grabbed his coat.

"Thanks anyway," he said quickly, and stepped through the door. He stood in the waiting room, resting his head against the therapist's office door. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. He opened his eyes slowly, and let them drift down from the spot on the ceiling he had arbitrarily been staring at, taking in the stark white ceiling and wall. His eyes came to rest on a macabre painting on the opposite wall. He contemplated looking away at first but for some reason decided to keep his eyes on it. He looked at the subtle contours of the simple, wooden frame; the dark outer edges of the painting, the forlorn faces of the subjects in the painting, their dark and empty eyes, the large dark figure in the background, the light shining from behind the figure. He started taking slow steps towards the painting, and began to notice a small symbol in the light. He didn't know why but he knew that he had seen the symbol before, and he felt that he even knew what it meant. He reached out his hand as the light behind the figure in the back seemed to grow brighter. He felt that if he could just touch the symbol, he could forget all his problems. He wanted to touch it. He _needed_ to touch it. His hand got slowly closer, the light growing slowly brighter.

"Excuse me, sir!" Aaron shook his head slightly, as if emerging from a daze, and turned to face the receptionist who had just spoke to him. She looked back at him somewhat crossly, and pointed back at the painting. He turned and realized that she was pointing slightly below it at the "Please Do Not Touch" sign. He turned back to her, keeping his eyes down, muttered a quick apology, then walked out of the office.

He walked quickly to his car. He opened the door and climbed in, then closed the door behind him. He sat and sighed, letting the silence of his car slowly seep through his entire body. He had always found silence calming. He slipped his key into the ignition, and started the car. He pulled out of the parking spot, and took off.

Aaron drove home, lost in his own thoughts. He almost missed the turn for the small apartment building where he lived. He parked his car in the tiny driveway and climbed out. He slowly walked up the steps of the front porch, then climbed the steps up to his apartment. He lazily pulled out his keys and opened the door.

The silence of his room washed over him, and he bathed himself in it, enjoying the calm it brought to him. He closed the door behind him to shut out all other noises. He closed his eyes and sighed, enjoying the silence and privacy. He looked at the clock on the VCR. It was only seven, but he felt excruciatingly tired, and decided to just get some sleep. He took off his jacket, pulled off his shirt, slipped out of his jeans and walked into the bathroom. He took a long, warm shower, feeling the water run over every part of his body. His muscles were sore, for the fact that he hadn't gotten much sleep in months. He was doing better according to his therapist, but he still felt that he had accomplished nothing with all of their sessions. He was still haunted with the nightmares, with the visions. He had been haunted by them since he was a little boy, and could never seem to escape them.

Aaron pulled himself out of his daze, finished his shower, walked into his bedroom, and climbed into bed. He lay there, staring at the ceiling. He wanted to sleep but was unnerved at the thought of having the nightmare again. He eventually fell into a fitful, nightmare-free sleep.

The next morning, he woke up into his normal morning routine. He hated monotony but knew there was nothing he could truly do about it. He had to make money, and, to do that, he had to work. He didn't mind his job, but he wasn't particularly excited to go.

He finished getting ready, grabbed his coat and keys, went down into his car and drove off.

"Aaron, you're late—again." His boss never failed to meet him at the door with the same words, and he never failed to walk past him with a muttered apology, to get right to work.

"It's restocking day, Aaron…and it's your turn to do it." Aaron sighed. While restocking gave him some silent time alone, he didn't much care for it. He trudged to back of the store, where he knew he would find the piles of new products. He pushed the door to the overstock room open, and looked up. Confusion drifted onto his face. The room was completely empty. No overstock in sight. He stood for a minute, not exactly sure what to do. He wasn't sure if his boss didn't know, or was trying to make some sort of statement. He angrily turned back and threw open the door.

Suddenly, Aaron felt a familiar sensation. A sensation he knew so well. The same tingle he would get whenever he walked into his apartment. Silence. Absolute silence. A silence that took over everything, and filled every inch of the store. It didn't startle Aaron at first. The store was usually very empty. But as he walked closer to the front of the store, he became more and more unnerved.

The silence was deafening. He couldn't even hear the usual din of the store. He didn't hear his boss idly moving around, trying to look as important as he could. And as he crept slowly forward, he couldn't even hear the quiet hum of any of the machines. All he heard was silence. As he reached the front of the store, he grew more unnerved. It wasn't that he couldn't hear his boss. His boss was nowhere to be heard.

"Hello?" He yelled to the emptiness of the store. No answer. "Hello?" He tried again, getting the same response—silence. His eyes slowly scanned over the entire store. His mouth quivered slightly in fear. His hands slowly searched for the front counter. The silence—his silence—was beginning to frighten him. And he began to realize that it was not simply the silence. What was truly frightening him was that the store had absolutely no signs of life. It seemed as if no one had been in the store for years. His hand brushed through layers upon layers of it. His eyes grew wide as he looked through a haze of dust. He stood there, unsure of what to do.

He jumped as he heard a high-pitched shrieking sound to his right. He turned quickly in fear, but only found a small, handheld radio. A radio that was emitting a high-pitched shriek. He quickly reached for it and tried to shut it off. For some reason, he felt worried that it was bringing attention to him. From what, he didn't know. He just knew that he did not want it to come. He began frantically shaking the radio, hitting it on his palm, and slamming buttons.

He was so drawn in by the radio that he didn't notice the shadow that was slowly falling over him.

The shriek from the radio was beginning to grow almost unbearable. Aaron finally grew frustrated and slammed the radio against the counter. As the sound of the radio hitting the counter reached his ears, Aaron heard the window behind him shatter. Before he could turn to see what it was, he felt something very heavy hit his back, and a very sharp pain in his neck. He shut his eyes with pain as his body hit the floor. He opened his eyes, and stared in absolute terror at his own body being mauled by a gigantic—something. His vision began to swim and he felt himself growing lightheaded. He felt the muscle in his face begin to tense up, freezing his face with a look of terror. He blacked out, his bloody mangled corpse being the last thing he would ever see.


	2. Emily

Chapter 2

Aaron bolted straight up, as if awakening from a terrible nightmare.

"Whoa, careful! If you sit up to fast, you'll get lightheaded and pass out again." A voice drifted to him from his right. He whipped his head around and found himself face to face with a mildly attractive, red-headed woman with a deeply freckled face. But it was from her eyes that Aaron found himself unable to pry his away. She had absolutely gorgeous, deep green eyes. However, the thing that drew him in was that they were the same eyes that looked out at him whenever he looked in the mirror. They held the same haunted look that his did.

She seemed to be about his age, if not a few years younger. She was smiling broadly at Aaron, and seemed to be incredibly glad that he was there with her. He smiled back, unsure of anything to say. Feeling the moment growing awkward, he pulled his eyes from the woman to take a look at his surroundings.

"So…what's your name?" the woman asked as Aaron took in the high, ornate ceiling.

"Aaron," he replied slowly as he noticed the high stained-glass windows. "What's your's?"

"Emily." She looked up as she said this, idly following the path of Aaron's eyes.

"How the hell did I get here?" Aaron asked, bringing his eyes back down to meet Emily's.

"I found you…passed out in front of the store two blocks from here. I couldn't just leave you there, so I brought you here."

"Then it must have been a dream…" he mumbled to himself. He reached up to rub his neck. Even though he knew it had to be a dream, he still felt the pain and horror he had felt then.

"Oh…" Emily began searching her pockets. She stopped for a second, apparently finding something, and pulled it out. "This fell from your pocket when I was getting you into the car. It was a bit harder than I thought."

Aaron's hand trembled a bit as he grabbed the small radio from Emily. He knew that what had happened before had to be a dream, but all the details of it came flooding back to him at the sight of the radio. He couldn't get that horrible shriek that had come from it out of his head. He shook his head, trying to jar the thoughts from his mind. He turned to Emily, somehow finding her face comforting. He found her looking back at him, a look of worry taking over her face.

"Have you seen them, too?" She asked quietly.

"Seen what?" Aaron asked, though he was afraid of her answer.

"The…the creatures that are lurking in this town. Like visions out of nightmares. Have you seen them?" A sad, almost pleading look came upon her face. She wanted him to say yes, and he knew it. He also knew what his answer would have to be even though he didn't want to believe it.

"I've seen—one. What the hell are they?"

"I don't know," Emily said, bringing her eyes to the ground as she did. "I was hoping you knew." She hugged her knees and rocked back and forth a bit. Tears slowly welled up in her eyes. "I'm scared," she practically whispered. "I've lived in Silent Hill all my life and always felt safe. Then, I wake up this morning…and…" Unexpectedly, she started crying. Aaron was caught off guard. He reached a hand over to comfort her, but wasn't sure if his touch would do any good.

"Hey, I'm scared too," Aaron said, surprised at his own vulnerability. "But we need to hold on to what little bit of courage we still have if were going to get out of this pla…Silent Hill." He said the name slowly, a flicker of a memory passing in front of his eyes. He knew this place, even if he could not figure out how he had got there from his job in Brahms. He remembered when he had been moving to Brahms, in hopes of turning his life around. The highway signs shined like bright green prophets, showing him the way to this place. He remembered that he had almost taken the exit for the town. He remembered the truck that kept him from it. He remembered that terrible, malevolent feeling.

Blinking his eyes, he pulled himself from his memories, and found Emily nestled in his arms, sobbing, a young daughter in her father's arms. He gently rubbed her back, and laid his head on hers.

"We'll make it out of here, Emily. I promise." He sat there for a second, almost expecting a response, but was met with her soft sobbing. He shifted slightly, signaling that he needed to stand up. She lifted herself up and looked at him with hope in her eyes.

"I know I will."

Aaron felt a shiver run down her spine at the way she said this. He wanted to correct her but didn't feel that the time was right. He turned and slowly started scanning the church.

"Alright, if we're going to get out of here, we'll probably run into more of those—monsters. So, we're going to need something to protect ourselves." As he said this, his eyes fell on a small metal cross that looked like it would make an excellent makeshift bat. The thought of using a cross like this felt wrong to him, but he felt that the situation he was in was wrong as well. Besides, religion wasn't that great of a thing to him. Everybody could hold their own beliefs, as long as he could hold onto his.

He crouched down to grab the cross. His fingers wrapped around it, and slowly picked it up feeling the weight of it. But he suddenly recoiled in pain. The cross hit the ground with a deafening clatter in the stark silence. Aaron looked down at his hand, holding it in pain. A large gash had appeared across his hand.

"I cut myself," he said staring at the gash, while his blood slowly oozed out of the large opening in his skin. Emily ran over to see, cringing a bit at the sight of blood.

"Uh…put some pressure on it to stop the bleeding. We need some kind of cloth to bandage it." Aaron nodded his head down at his sleeve, indicating the two layers of clothing he was wearing. Emily reached up and expertly ripped off a strip, which she then used to tightly cover the wound.

"What are you, a girl scout?" Aaron said jokingly. Emily chuckled a bit.

"I'm in nursing school at the University in Silent Hill. I've always enjoyed helping people and I figured a nurse was a great way to follow that passion." She stepped back a bit to admire her handy work. "That should do just fine for now."

"Thanks," he said, impressed. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. But her smile quickly turned to one of fear. Aaron didn't need to turn around to know why. A muffled, static shriek was slowly beginning to grow from his pocket, as a shadow fell into his line of vision. This time he knew not to wait around. He grabbed Emily's hand, and took off at a run towards a door at the other end of the church. The window behind them exploded in a shower of colored shards. Every bit of Aaron's common sense was screaming at him to just keep running and not to look back. But an unnaturally seductive urge was calling out to him from deep within his soul was telling him to look at the monstrosity that was chasing them.

He could not resist the pull. His head turned slowly and his eyes caught sight of what appeared to be a large dog—had the dog been turned inside out. It was covered in raw flesh that looked as if it would never stop bleeding. Large, grotesque claws protruded from the creature's paws. A horrible grin of sharp, foreboding teeth was plastered on the dog's lipless face.

Aaron snapped his head back forward to see where he was going. As fast as they were running, the dog's four long legs were carrying it ever closer. Aaron's outstretched hand reached the door first, frantically trying to pull it open. His hands trembled fiercely as he brought both forward to grasp the doorknob.

"Aaron!" Emily yelled, grabbing his shoulder, pure terror filling her voice. He knew that their only hope was the door. He knew that it was his fear that was keeping him from opening it.

He took a deep breath, turned the knob sharply and threw open the door as the creature took its final lunge.


	3. Facing Death

Chapter 3

The door slammed hard behind them as the creature lunged into it. Aaron and Emily jumped back, as if they had been hit themselves. A small whimper came through the door. But it slowly turned back into a growl as they heard the 'dog' backed up and lunged again. Its efforts were met with a loud metallic thump. They heard the creature back up again, then lunge. It gave off a high-pitched squeal, as the usual thump was followed closely by another. They kept their eyes on the door, waiting for another sound, but heard only silence.

Aaron pried his eyes away and finally took a look around them. They were in a small windowless room, illuminated only by the dim light swinging a few inches above their heads. It was filled with small piles of junk. The only other door Aaron saw lay slightly ajar in the corner, revealing only a tiny closet. He turned to Emily, as their situation slowly dawned on them.

"There's no other way out," he whispered, afraid to raise his voice much higher.

"You mean we have to go back out _there_?" Emily whispered, pointing a trembling finger at the door they had just ran through. Aaron surveyed the room again, and began nodding slowly.

"Yeah…but maybe we can find something in here to defend ourselves with." They each took a slow step away from the door, turned to separate sides of the room, and began to search. A thick silence hung over them, neither one sure of exactly what should or could be said. Emily stole a glance at Aaron, wanting desperately to break the silence, as it always made her uncomfortable. She noticed his head move slightly, and quickly whipped hers back around, suddenly embarrassed that she had been staring. She quickly rummaged through a pile right next to her, as if she were busy. She jumped a bit when she heard Aaron speak up.

"So how exactly did you end up in a place like this?" he asked, without looking up from the pile he was searching through. He seemed to be building up a small pile of makeshift weapons.

"I…I don't know," she said. "I woke up this morning, like I always do, and got ready for the day. Now that I think of it, that's when the silence started. I didn't hear anyone in any of the other apartments, but everyone else is usually either gone or still asleep when I left. I took the stairs down to the lobby of my apartment building, and walked out the front door…into this. I didn't realize it at first. I mean, it's usually foggy in this town so I just thought…I thought nothing of it. But as I got into my car, I notice a figure in the fog. It was limping towards me and I was worried that it was somebody who was injured. As I got closer, though, I noticed that it didn't seem to have a face, or arms, or anything. It looked as if it were just a mass of quivering skin. I ran back to my car and started, and…just ran it over. I was so frightened, I just ran it over."

Emily grew silent at the thought of it. Aaron could only guess at the reason.

"Did you ever know anyone who died, Emily?" He said, wishing he could pull the words back as soon as they escaped his lips. He didn't know why he suddenly had the urge to ask the question, but he hadn't meant to actually say it. He turned back to his work quickly, but knew it was too late. All he could do was sit in silence to see how she would react.

"I've only faced death once. Our family dog was hit by a car one day when she ran away." She stopped for a second, a tiny pained laugh filling the silence. "I can't even believe I remembered that. I was so sad when it happened, too. My dad drove out to where she had been found to pick her up. We had a proper burial and even a eulogy which I had demanded to write." She sighed as the last few words hung over them. They stood, looking at each other's eyes for a second, but pulled away from the awkwardness of the moment.

"Have…have you…ever faced…death?" Emily asked slowly. She looked carefully at Aaron to see how he would react to the question.

"Yeah," Aaron answered quietly. "Yeah, I have." He seemed reluctant to continue, afraid to bring up the past which he had worked so hard to forget. But, somehow, he knew he had to tell her.

"When I was six, my parents…were murdered." Emily gasped, her eyes widening.

"I'm…so…I'm so sorry." She said quickly.

"It's alright. As they always say, you didn't know. Besides I barely remember it myself. The only thing I remember is that I had a terrible nightmare that night. I went to my parents room…then all I remember is waking up in the backseat of a police car. There were police all around. I remember the lights being so bright. One of the police men saw me, came over, and told me everything. They didn't know who had done it, or how. But they wouldn't let me in to see." Aaron paused, looking down at the ground. "I caught a glimpse as they drove me away, though." He took a deep breath, a shimmer growing in his eyes. "There was…so…so much blood." His voice broke with a sob, as he quickly turned back to rummaging through the piles.

Emily stared at his back, mad at herself for bringing the topic up, and wanting to say something comforting. But she found herself completely speechless. She quietly turned and shuffled through her few remaining piles.

The silence hang between them, Aaron not wanting to bring up any more of his past, Emily not sure of what could be said. After a few more minutes of searching, Aaron finally stood upright, and turned to Emily.

"Well, I think this is all I'm gonna be able to get from here. There's some metal rods, some pieces of wood, and some random tools."

"Hmm…I think I'll go for the metal." Emily said with a slight chuckle. She grabbed one of the rods, and was surprised a bit at how heavy it was. She raised it awkwardly, and took a swing with it like a baseball player. Aaron jumped out of the way, as the makeshift bat almost struck his side.

"Awesome," he said as he reached down to grab his own weapon. He waved it a bit to feel it out. It was slightly heavy, but, as he held it, it seemed to become lighter—just perfect. He took his test swing, bringing it to a sharp stop right in front of Emily. She cringed slightly, then laughed.

"Careful, there, Mark McGuire," she teased. They stood chuckling at the joke, but slowly stopped as their eyes slowly moved to the door.

"I guess it's time for us to go." Aaron said quietly.

"But, to where? The entire town is shrouded in this fog and probably crawling with those monsters. You're the first person I've seen here."

"Maybe…maybe, what's happened here has only happened here. Maybe if we can get out of this town…I don't know…maybe we can find someone to help us."

"I guess…" Emily sighed. "I just want out of this nightmare." Aaron nodded, then turned and walked carefully towards the door. His hand shook slightly, as it wrapped around the doorknob. He turned it slowly, and pulled the door open. A small gasp came from behind him as Emily's eyes meet the same grotesque sight his were taking in. The creature laid, its legs sprawled out at awkward angles. Its head was twisted backwards, facing towards the ground. All of this on top of its already disturbing visage made it a terrible sight. They carefully stepped over it, heading towards the exit. A low rumble escaped from the creature. Aaron and Emily looked back at it, their eyes widening. They stood, too afraid to move, waiting to see what would happen. Aaron stepped slowly towards it to get a closer look.

"What are you doing?" Emily whispered sharply. Aaron waved a hand back at her, not taking his eyes of the dog. He stepped up to its side, but stepped back slightly as he saw its chest rise and fall slightly. It slowly raised its head, and turned its face towards Aaron. A cold look fell onto Aaron's face as it began to growl. He slowly rose his foot, placing it over the dog's face.

"Go to Hell," he said, bringing his foot down hard and crushing its skull.


	4. Sam

Chapter 4

_Darkness. All that surrounded him was darkness. He was floating. He didn't even know if there was a ground. He didn't see it. He didn't feel it. Now that he thought of it, he didn't feel anything—and it seemed right. A flash from the clouds above caught his eyes. He looked up to see fire slowly filling the sky. His eyes fell as he heard a soft splash, and slowly realized that he was standing on water. And as he kept staring, he felt himself become the water—the water to extinguish the flames._

"Aaron…Aaron…wake up. There's a problem." Emily's voice broke through the shroud of Aaron's dreams. He hadn't even realized that he had fallen asleep. He blinked his eyes slowly to clear his gaze. He looked around outside the car, and only saw fog.

"What's wrong?" He mumbled, turning his gaze to meet Emily's. She looked back at him, a look of worry on her face.

"We're out of gas." He looked around again as she said this.

"Well, I'm sure we can just walk from here. We have what we need to protect ourselves. And we can't be that far from the outskirts of town." She looked back at him, the lines of worry increasing on her face.

"That's just the thing. I know I said I've lived here all my life, and I know my way around, but…for some reason, I have no idea where I am. I can't find my way out of this town." Aaron followed Emily's gaze as she looked out at the fog that seemed to be swallowing the car. Lines of concentration appeared on Aaron's forehead as he thought of their options. Emily looked on as he sighed, obviously unhappy with his solution.

"We've got no choice. If we stay here, the creatures will eventually find there way in. Or we'll just die from starvation and thirst. We've got to walk and find a way out of here." He reached into the backseat, grabbing their makeshift weapons, and handing Emily hers. He turned to the door, pulled it open, and stepped out into the fog. He took a little stretch, surprised at how cramped he had gotten from the ride. A yawn started to slip out of his mouth, but stopped as he noticed a figure appearing out of the fog.

"Emily?" he said loudly, trying to find out where she was. He knew that she couldn't have walked away and be heading back in the short time it took him to get out of the car, but he didn't want to believe what he thought—and knew—this shadow was.

"What?" Aaron jumped at the sound of Emily's voice right by his side. He looked at her, and slowly moved his gaze to the figure in the fog. He started to perceive a familiar sound coming from his pocket. His hands tightened around the rod he was holding, and he brought it up, taking a batter's stance. He cautiously moved forward, not wanting to wait to see what he was about to face. The static shriek emanating from his pocket slowly grew in intensity as the figure slowly came into focus. He beheld what he believed to be the same creature that Emily had seen earlier. It was a horribly disfigured human form, which seemed to be covered in quivering flesh. Aaron took two more steps forward, coming within striking distance of the creature. His hands tightened around the rod, as he got ready to swing. But as he took his back swing, the creature released some kind of gas from the area where its head might have been. The scent of rotting, burnt flesh bombarded Aaron's senses. He took a few steps back to escape the smell, pulling his arm in front of his nose. He took a deep breath through his sleeve, placed both hands back on the rod, took a step forward, and swung. The metal made a sickening, mushy 'thunk' as it made contact with the creature's head. The thing stumbled back, seemingly cringing in pain, but seemed otherwise unaffected. Aaron stepped back, took a quick hop-skip forward, and swung at the beast again. Its 'head' lolled back and the creature seemed to stop, apparently stunned. Aaron twirled the rod around in his left hand, grasping it like a javelin. He took one last step forward and thrust the rod through the creature's chest. A wet gasping sound escaped from an unseen mouth as the monster crumpled to the ground. Aaron, taking a cue from his previous run-in, walked up to the monster, brought his heel up, and let it fall hard on the creature's head. A satisfyingly squishy crunch met his efforts. He turned to Emily, a smile of triumph on his face.

"See, we'll be…" his voice trailed off as he saw the look on her face. The same look slowly dripped onto his features as he looked behind her at the myriad figures—a circle of them—coming towards them. The static of the radio, which had become white noise during the fight, was now excruciating. Aaron turned quickly to the downed monster, pulling his rod out with a 'smack'. He turned to Emily, took two quick bounds to her side, grabbed her hand, and took off through a gap in the grotesque shadows. He didn't know where he was going; he just wanted to make sure that Emily was safe. But as they kept running, more and more of the figures seemed to emerge from nowhere. The shriek of the radio in his pocket grew incessantly louder as the creatures seemed to surround them. Aaron put his head down and ran harder, grasping Emily's hand tighter.

"Aaron…" Emily gasped. "Aaron, I don't think I can keep up!"

_She's right. This isn't working, _Aaron thought to himself. _We need to find somewhere…a building or something…to hide in._ As if in answer to his thoughts, a large rectangular shadow emerged out of the fog. He took off at a sprint, throwing his hand out in front of him. He instinctively reached for a doorknob, but found that there was a bar. He pushed as hard as he could and threw open the door. He brought his other hand forward, practically throwing Emily in, ran in, and turned. His eyes widened at the sight. A wave of creatures was closing in around the building, all deadly focused on getting at the two of them. Aaron grabbed the bar next to him, and pushed the door closed. He let out a large breath, which he realized he had been holding for a while. Looking quickly around, he saw a stack of boxes, ran over to them, and pushed them in front of the door. He turned around to face Emily.

"That's not gonna hold them off for long." He said between heavy breaths. "We have to find another way out of here." He surveyed the room for an exit. It was a tiny, cramped, empty room. A small window at the side of the door revealed that the monsters were getting closer. The only exits were the door they came through, and a small door on the opposite wall.

"Come on," he said, nodding his head towards the door. He took three large strides over to the door, and pulled it open. A staircase lay on the other side. Aaron stared to the top of the staircase, uneasy that he couldn't see where it led to. As he slowly brought his eyes down, they caught sight of a sheet of notebook paper. He kneeled down to pick it up, slowly surveying it. It was written with a very plain ink, in a very plain handwriting. A handwriting that looked strangely familiar.

"What is that?" Emily's voice drifted to his ears. He crumpled up the paper quickly. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't want Emily to see it.

"Nothing," he said, shoving the wad into his pocket. "Just some empty sheet of paper." Emily raised her eyebrow questioningly. "Don't want to litter," Aaron joked. She shrugged, not really concerned to pursue the issue. She raised her eyes to the staircase, sighing and smiling.

"Well, I guess there's no other way to go," she said, stepping in front of Aaron and walking up the stairs. Aaron's hand slipped into his pocket, carefully grasping the wad of paper. He thought of reading it, but decided against it. He followed Emily up the stairs, keeping his eyes towards the top, and grasping his weapon.

They emerged in a long, dank hallway. Plain, oak doors lined the walls. A bright, red exit sign glowed from the far end, beckoning them to approach. Emily turned back to Aaron, a confused look on her face.

"I know this place." She spoke slowly while surveying the entire length of the hallway. "But this isn't where it was." Aaron let his eyes wander; taking in everything he could see. The hallway was lit fairly well, a few swinging lamps overhead warding off the shadows. It looked fairly clean though it looked as if it hadn't been touched in years. All the doors were closed firmly, concealing the secrets that lay within. Strangely, Aaron knew this place, too, though he didn't know why. He couldn't think of a time he had ever been through there. The fact that Emily recognized it as well only complicated matters. To the best of his memory, he had never seen Emily in his life, and yet they seemed to have both been through this place. He said nothing though, as to not stir any false hope in Emily.

They took off towards the other end of the hall, hoping for a way out. But as they slowly came to the exit sign, they realized that it had been a false prophet. In place of the door was a crude drawing of one, as if it had been put on their by a child. Aaron and Emily ran their hands up and down the wall, in disbelief.

"What the hell?" Aaron said slowly, his hand running over what should have been a doorknob. He turned to Emily, who was already facing the other direction. He followed her gaze unsure of what she was looking at. Fright fell onto his face as he saw one of the doors near them slowly opening. He felt his hands tighten instinctively around his weapon, and saw Emily grasping hers. They inched towards the door, preparing for whatever it was they were about to face.

They breathed a sigh of relief as a girl a few years younger than them looked carefully out at them.

"Please tell me your not one of them." Her voice was devastated with fear. Her arm shook violently, as she held tightly to the doorframe.

"No," Emily spoke up, not wanting to frighten the girl more. "No, we don't know how we got here and we're just trying to find a way out."

The girl took a slow, fearful step out of the door, coming face to face with the pair. She had long dark hair that covered her left eye. She was dressed in a form-fitting pink t-shirt, and dark black bell-bottoms. She stood facing them, but refused to move out of the doorframe. Emily took a cautious step forward, and to the girl's side.

"How long have you been in here?" Emily said incredulously. She looked the girl in the eye, as if asking for permission. She stepped into the room as the girl nodded back. "It looks like you live here."

"I do live here," the girl responded quietly. "It's my dorm room. But this isn't where it's supposed to be." She paused for a second, her eyes falling to the ground. "Maybe this is my punishment."

Aaron was still standing outside the door. He looked in at Emily, wondering if she had heard what he had. His gaze turned back to the dark-haired girl, wondering whether she had truly just spoken. Not wanting to make things awkward, he moved on to a simpler question.

"So, what's your name?" The girl's eye's rose to meet his.

"Samantha, but my friends call me Sam."

"Samantha" Aaron repeated slowly. A small chill raced down Aaron's back. The two of them stood staring at each other, an uncomfortable silence growing between them.

"Hey, what the hell is this? It might come in handy for later." Emily's voice broke through the space between Aaron and Sam. He pried his eyes away from hers, throwing them down to the ground. In the process, he caught glimpse of the folded sheet of paper, he had found on the stairs. As Sam turned into the room, to help Emily with what she was doing, he grabbed the note, unraveled it, and looked over it much more carefully then he had before. It looked to be some journal or diary, written by some kid. He read it over in his head.

_Mommy and Daddy got in a fight again today. It mad me sad. I don't like it when they shout. Daddy kept telling Mommy that everything was alright, but she just kept yelling that nothing would be. She would talk about God then Daddy would get scared._

_I heard my name, too._

_I don't think Mommy likes me…_

Aaron slowly folded the sheet up as he finished. He looked up and noticed that Emily had been looking at him while he had been reading the note. Her eyes darted away as she realized that he was looking at her. He laughed a bit at the childish game they were playing, and took a step forward to help with the search.

Pain. A blinding pain in his head. He dropped to his knees and grasped his head tightly, as if trying to keep it from flying apart. A high-pitched buzzing noise filled his ears, growing louder as the pain grew steadily in intensity. He looked up at the room but found it impossible to focus on anything. The pain felt like it was slowly pouring down his back to every inch of his body. Two blurred shapes moved towards him—Emily and Samantha. He heard their voices over the buzz, but couldn't make out what they were saying. He dropped to the ground, his body convulsing from sheer pain. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't feel. He couldn't breathe. Everything around him was slowly fading away. Pain was becoming the only thing he knew. His eyes slammed shut in a futile effort to ward off the pain. The pain had seeped to every extremity. His world was falling into darkness.

His arms fell limply to the ground as the darkness consumed him.


	5. David

Chapter 5

_Pride. Envy. Wrath. Sloth. Greed. Gluttony. Lust. These are the seven deadly sins. These are the sins for which there is no redemption. These are the sins that bring God to wrath. These are the sins for which you must be punished._

The touch of cold steel to his cheek jarred Aaron from unconsciousness. He shook his head to clear his vision, but winced as a small pain shot through it.

_Shit_, he thought, rubbing his head, _what the hell happened?_

He cautiously stood up, reaching a hand out to the wall to steady himself. A warm, pulsating sensation met his touch. He wrenched his hand back as his eyes finally focused. He glanced down at his hand, which was covered in blood, then looked up at the wall, where he found the source. The walls were bleeding. In fact the walls were _living_. It looked as if someone had decided to use skin instead of wallpaper. Aaron doubled over and vomited—and watched as his vomit fell into an abyss. He shut his eyes, unsure of which horror was less to endure. He stood up straight and slowly opened his eyes. He looked around at the pulsating walls trying to decide where he was. Aside from the abyss and the bleeding walls, he realized that he was still in Sam's refuge. He was still in the room. But Sam and Emily were not. In fact, they didn't seem to be anywhere at all.

Aaron stepped out into the hall in search of them, and was greeted with the same grotesque sight as he saw in the room. But he still didn't see the two girls. Something else did catch his eye though. The exit sign at the end of the hallway glowed brightly over an actual door. He approached incredulously, afraid that his eyes were once again playing tricks on him. But as his hand reached out it grasped a doorknob. He turned the knob almost triumphantly, pushed the door, and peered at what it opened into. He found himself staring back into the hallway—or at least it seemed to him. He was looking at an exact replica of the hall he was just in. Confusion set on his face, as he looked back into the same hallway. He slowly took in both paths, as if contemplating which way to go.

"Well, better to move forward than go back to the past," He sighed, and reached forward as he stepped through the door. He whipped his hand back as it brushed against the wall. The feel of it made him wretch, but he closed his eyes to center himself. They flew open as he felt the floor rumble. He turned towards the source and saw the hallway behind him falling apart. As it got closer, the hallway seemed to fall apart faster. Aaron brought his foot through the door and started to jog, keeping his eyes behind him. The hallway started falling apart faster, as if chasing him. He ran, the crumbling chasing him. As he turned again to look behind him, he tripped and fell hard on his back. He struggled to get back up, staring in horror as the hallway gave way inches in front of him. He closed his eyes, waiting—waiting for the sensation of falling forever.

His eyes flew open as he began to fell a very different sensation—a very sharp sensation. Of being pulled up. In front of him laid the hallway, perfectly fine—except for the fact that he was closed off from it by thick metal bars.

"W-what…" Aaron said incredulously, his face filled with confusion. But the quizzical look on his face left as he remembered how he had been 'saved'. He quickly whipped around, came face to face with a tall, slender blonde-haired guy, who looked about the same age as Aaron.

"Who the hell are you?" Aaron said sharply. He had been expecting one of the girls and the fact that it wasn't made him a bit irritated.

"Oh. You're awake. I thought you were either dead or asleep." They stood staring at each other for a while—an uncomfortably long while.

"_Who_ the _hell_ are you?" Aaron repeated, the intensity of his voice rising. The blonde guy just stared back his face scrunched in disbelief.

"Well, I would've gone with a 'thank you' or something along that lines but I'll just pretend that it was understood," the guy said sarcastically. He placed his hand out in a gesture of mock geniality. "David just happens to be who the hell I am. David Shaw." Aaron reached out his hand, a small feeling of fear in his gut, grabbed David's and they shook hands.

"My name's Aaron. Aaron Mort." He looked away nervously, dropping David's hand, as his eyes caught David's for a second. "Sorry if I was rude. I was just hoping that…that you were someone else."

David starred at Aaron for a second, a slight look of disbelief on his face, as if about to say something. But then he just shook his head and looked towards the other end of the hallway.

"We better get moving. Those…_things_…will come back." Aaron's attention instantly snapped towards David as the last words left David's mouth. Though he hadn't really expected it, he was hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with any of those monsters anymore. David turned and started walking down the hall. Aaron took one quick, long stride then fell in step behind David.

The two of them remained silent for a while. David seemed a bit unwilling to talk and Aaron never knew what to say. He just stared at the back of David's head. But the silence eventually began to get to him. He finally gave in and said the first thing that came to his head.

"Why are you here?" David jumped a bit at the sound of Aaron's voice. He stopped and turned around to face Aaron. He opened his mouth to respond, stopped for a second, then shrugged.

"I don't know…I think I remember something…" David trailed off, his eyes falling to the ground. Aaron stared at David's vacant face, dipping his head a bit to try to grab David's attention. David's eyes shot up to meet his, a slightly dumb look on his face.

"Maybe not. I guess I just don't know." David shrugged again, then turned and walked off towards the end of the hallway. Aaron stared after him incredulously, then shook his head, jogged up to David's side and fell in step with him once again.

Aaron slowly brought his eyes up to look at David. He couldn't figure out why but something about David was nagging at him—bothering him. But it was strange to him because David seemed like an incredibly likeable guy.

David's eyes twitched as if he were about to turn his gaze, and Aaron suddenly became conscious of the fact that he was staring. He quickly brought his eyes forward—and saw that they had reached the end of the hallway.

As Aaron stared up at the glowing red exit sign, a sensation of déjà vu came over him—and as he brought his eyes down to the wall in front of them he knew exactly why.

"It's not real. There's no door here." David mumbled. Aaron shook his head as his hand ran over the same false doorknob he had seen earlier.

"Why would someone draw a picture of a door on a wall and not put an actual door here?" Aaron speculated out loud.

"To hide something…but something that needs to be found." Aaron turned to stare at David, surprised by the foreboding tone of his voice.

A small movement behind them caught his attention. Aaron turned around and stared with fear as a monstrosity emerged from the darkness. Mostly it looked like a woman—a woman whose entire left side had been viciously removed. Its right arm hung loosely at its side, and it walked with an unnervingly quick shuffle. The most disturbing thing, however, was its head. Seemingly hanging by just a bit of sinew, it swung violently in every direction. But what frightened Aaron was that the face was incredibly human. Unlike the monsters he had faced before, this one had eyes, a nose, a mouth—a visage that Aaron could not look away from

Aaron instinctively grasped his wooden weapon—only to realize that he no longer had it in his hands. Frantically, he looked around for something to protect himself, but was only faced with the same disturbing sight he had seen when he first awoke in this world. He began looking for an escape path, and noticed that one of the doors that led to a room was slightly ajar. He looked up at David, who was still puzzling over the door, and made his plan of action. He grabbed David by the back of the shirt, and strode quickly past the monster to the door. As he threw the door all the way open, he took a glance over his shoulder—and almost screamed. The monster was opening its mouth unnaturally wide, revealing rows of sharp, jagged teeth, and preparing to lunge. Aaron brought his right arm forward, throwing David into the room, reached around to grab the inside doorknob, and turned, pulling himself into the room.

He began shutting the door, and breathing his sigh of relief, when the monster lunged and sunk its teeth into his arm.


End file.
